


Orchids, rafflesias and lilies

by Humanity_Sucks2002



Series: Bellamort One-Shots [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, Angst, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Inspired By Tumblr, Mentions of Cancer, Mortality, One Shot, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:27:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27015748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Humanity_Sucks2002/pseuds/Humanity_Sucks2002
Summary: The wound is deep, but the wound will heal. Time heals all things, and I have an abundance of time.
Relationships: Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Tom Riddle, Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Voldemort, Delphi & Bellatrix Black Lestrange, Delphi & Voldemort (Harry Potter)
Series: Bellamort One-Shots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2188704
Comments: 9
Kudos: 29





	Orchids, rafflesias and lilies

It should not be sunny. It should not be warm. There should be no birdsong, nor rustling leaves, as the summer breeze drifts though them. The smell of wildflowers in the air is sickening. Musical, the water, flowing lazily, in the river is hateful to my ears. This is wrong. All wrong.

If this was a novel, we would be stood in a swirling thunderstorm, beaten down by sheets of rain and hail. It should be freezing. The women in their black, summer dresses should instead be gargoyles leering down over this horror. The men, arms behind their back in the warped shape of penguins, should instead be the charred and blackened trees burned by the fury of the storm. But this is not a novel. There is no pathetic fallacy here: only a warm, early summer’s day, a party of mourners and an oak coffin.

There are orchids atop the coffin. Orchids, rafflesias, lilies – they’re all taken from her home. I could not bring myself to collect them, I had my hand around the doorknob to the orangery. I could feel the warmth of the room, for the sun was shining strong though the glass that day and it was truly tropical temperatures in there. But I stopped. I let go. I left. Stepping in there, picking those damn flowers made it feel very real. I was not ready for it to be real.

Bella wanted a coffin. She always liked them better than caskets. She liked how they were more human shaped – that you could see the vague outline of a person in there. So accepting of death! So fascinated by the morbidity of it all. I wish she’d chosen a casket. The very thing she loved about it is making me sick.

As we lowered her in, she was nearly dropped. Draco started crying, his concentration broken. He had been lifting the end where her feet were; it dropped heavy, inanimate, before Narcissa caught it. I heard her body slide inside. I heard the heels of her boots, her favourite boots – the ones she wore in battle – as they smacked into the wood at the end. Bella would have thought it was hilarious, if it had been someone else’s funeral. I could hear her laughter. Except, I couldn’t. Bella wasn’t there. Bella was lying dead in that damned box.

I wanted to kill Draco for doing what I wanted to do, but couldn’t. The control it took to stop myself shaking, stop tears flowing, stop myself ripping up trees, killing everyone there, it was exhausting. When she was safely down at the bottom, I twitched, my hand grasping the wand, ready to kill the weak fool. Delphini met my eyes across the burial. She shook her head subtly. I put the wand away.

It’s ironic. A survivor. Bella had been in so many battles yet the final battle she lost was against her own body. It was cancer that got her in the end. She’d come out of her appointment with the healers, having just been told there was no hope for her recovery, and had laughed with me.

“If you want something doing, you have to do it yourself, right?” She’d said. I had been horrified at how easily she had just accepted it. I would have raged against the illness. I would have screamed and fought and sworn. I would never have accepted death, no matter how it was coming to me. Bellatrix did accept it. “I’ve lived a wonderful life.” She’d said, sadly. Her hand gently atop mine, thinking more to comfort me than seek comfort for herself. There was misery and fear in her eyes, but also genuine appreciation for her life. I had to respect that. I was glad that she was going out in dignity.

There are so many people here. People that had hated Bella in life, those who were jealous, fearful, resentful of her. Hungry eyes burn into the back of my neck, trying to see my reaction, no doubt. Rumours must be satisfied, and this is their last chance to do so. They will get nothing from me. My face has been a mask for most of my life, it can last a few hours more. They gather around like carrion. They are vultures, circling. But they shall not feast upon her. I suppose I can thank the coffin for that one thing. Nothing can hurt her. They can take nothing from her. Peace at last. Safety from everything now. Bella never wanted to be safe.

The family each take a handful of earth. Dry, crumbly, cold, it feels like breadcrumbs or ground up biscuits. Flecks of it fall out from between my fingers. It’s funny, I’d never considered us family before this week, but I suppose we always have been.

Delphini catches my eye again. She gulps. There are no tears in her eyes, but I can see the storm brewing in her. Her hair is down, loose, with a braid circling her head like a crown. Just the way Bellatrix liked it done. Her knuckles are white she holds the earth so tightly. Her nails dig into the palm of her hand; I would not be surprised if they are drawing blood. ‘Be strong’ I tell her, legillimacy pressing against her mind. She shoots me a tight smile, but says nothing.

Narcissa drops her handful first. There is a heavy thump, like a snowball hitting a window, and she steps back. Right now, I hate her. I despise her. She looks so much like Bella, an inversed, fair version of her, and I want to scream that Narcissa should be the one down there right now. Bella deserved life more, had suffered though more, had survived more – Bella had earned her comfort in life. What had Mrs Malfoy done? Nothing. She’d sat in Malfoy manor for eighty years, playing house. Narcissa buries her face in her handkerchief, loosing all of her composure. The magic is broken, she no longer resembles Bella to me. The hate turns to disgust at this poor imitation of her.

Delphini goes next. She pauses, arm outstretched over the hole, eyes wide and childlike looking down at the coffin below. I wonder what memory makes her stop? A childhood memory perhaps? Crawling into bed with her mother, after a terrible nightmare, feeling her arms wrapping around her, protecting her from the world. Or maybe a one from her teen years? Bellatrix the teacher, coaching the dark arts out of Delphini masterfully, overjoyed when she was able to do it. Adulthood? Confiding in her mother, still learning from her but living as friends, equals. I will never know. The moment passes. Delphini drops her handful of earth and steps back. Her face is stone.

I go last. The coffin is nearly fully covered when I step forward. All I can see, the light of the inappropriate sunlight hitting it, is her name plate. Bellatrix Duella Le-Strange ( Nee Black). 1951 – 2056. Embossed with gold, the plate made it so final. 1951 till 2056 – she’d only been on this earth one hundred and five years. How funny that such a mortal could make such a change, in such a short space of time. I will be here for the rest of time. What is 105 compared to eternity? I swear to you, Bellatrix, I shall never forget you.

I drop my handful. Her name plate is covered, the last bit of her gone with the soft breeze. I step back, a pain in my chest I had been trying to fight off for days stinging me. The wound is deep, but the wound will heal. Time heals all things, and I have an abundance of time. Goodbye, Bellatrix. You were, and will always be, my most faithful. My best luitenent.

**Author's Note:**

> I saw an ask on tumblr that inspired this. Blame them lol


End file.
